Tag Archives: Easter eggs

I’m not one to waste – I try not to waste time (mine or others), I try not to waste experiences (I watch kids games rather than video tape them) and I try not to waste money (consuming for the sake of consumption).

But perhaps the place I try to be least wasteful is with food. I think this is ingrained in my psyche. My grandmother owned a grocery store (The West End Grocery in Raymond, IL) and used every morsel she had. I remember her telling me the story about how people RAVED about her ham salad at the deli. Her secret was that she used all the bits of the leftover meats to grind for ham salad – not just the ham.

Maybe you followed The Great Purge earlier this year. On my personal Facebook page, I shared my exercise at the beginning of the calendar year. I was going to use all the pantry items and frozen items on hand until they were gone; the only food I could buy was perishables. I went almost 30 meals (seven weeks) without buying any dry food items. I was amazed at the accumulation of food items here within my own home.

But, today was trash day. So, it was also clean out the fridge day. It almost physical PAINS me to throw food in the trash. And today was a bad day for food waste. You may remember my post about coloring Easter Eggs. We dyed four dozen eggs – today I threw out 1 and 1/2 dozen. ACK! And, we cut out and decorated Easter cookies both here and at my parents’ house. And today a large portion of those went in the trash. Also, a few fish fillets that were leftovers from dinner a couple of nights ago. And, a few slices of a few different types of bread that were growing some green stuff.

Last week I went on a field trip with my son’s third grade class. His class had conducted a service project at his school – collecting rice and pasta for donation to a local not-for-profit. We were able to visit the business and learn what they do. And what they do – it’s amazing!

“we are transforming lives through the power of food. We rescueprepared and perishable food, prepare it into nutritious meals and distribute those meals to over 60 social services organizations that feed hungry people. We also use rescued food to train disadvantaged adults for careers in the culinary field, helping to eliminate hunger at its source.

I’ve been thinking about this lately. You see, we dye a lot of Easter Eggs. I mean alot! So many eggs that most of my friends poke fun at me.

We color one dozen…. per kid….. per house.

So, 4 dozen at my house. One dozen for each kid plus 1 extra dozen for my husband and me. And, 6 dozen at my parent’s house. One dozen for each kid and 1 dozen for the adults to share.

My argument is that it is 1) fun and 2) inexpensive entertainment. Eggs on sale at Easter are about $1 per dozen. And you can get a PAAS dye-ing kit for about $1 too. Cheap… cheap!

But I started wondering why I buy the PAAS kit. I mean I guess I buy it because they sell it. But really I started thinking – what should I use to dye eggs? Would it really work to try and do something else? I’m not that creative or natural or organic. Would it be worth all the effort?

Then on Monday morning I got an update to a blog I follow – recalcroute.com. I have friends who have rented out their house for a year and are traveling the United States with their three kids. He is working for the company he owns and she is home-schooling the girls. His pictures are amazing, the journal is fantastic and the experiences that they are sharing are incredible.

They had made Easter baskets – the old-fashioned way from grade school – out of paper sacks. And they had colored eggs – with dye-ing type foods that they had around: coffee, tea, wine, boiled spinach, and cherries.

The picture of the eggs that he shared was strikingly void of color – but only at first glance.

I asked if I could share his picture. Take a look.

No, really, LOOK at those eggs.

These are perhaps the most beautifully colored Easter eggs I’ve ever seen.